On Sunday, newly-minted president of the NRA Oliver North blamed school shootings such as the one in Santa Fe Friday on a “culture of violence” and…Ritalin.

Talking to Fox News host Chris Wallace, North said the problem isn’t guns and the solution isn’t gun control:

“We’re trying like the dickens to treat the symptoms without treating the disease.”

North is right about that.

The media humiliated itself over the past year, hysterically yelling about “assault rifles.” All the while, there was no such thing. Television’s talking heads were illustrating their ignorance of rifles, choosing to respond emotionally to spooky-shaped plastic firearms as if they possessed a quality of murder which others did not.

On Friday, everyone who had shouted the words “assault rifle” or “AR-15” on the small screen was made to look like a buffoon:

Surprise — other guns kill people, too. And just as well.

In fact, in several mass shootings, an AR-15 was not used. Furthermore, in the case of last November’s Texas church shooting, an AR was used to stop the murderer.

At Virginia Tech, the shooter preferred a handgun; in Santa Fe, that was combined with a shotgun — a weapon of choice at Columbine.

But could the media be even more wrong? Could the problem not be guns at all?

North thinks so:

“The disease in this case isn’t the Second Amendment. The disease is youngsters who are steeped in a culture of violence.”

In the 1950’s, guns were so familiar that a Middle American could walk down the street carrying a rifle without interference from the community or law enforcement. Yet teens weren’t blowing away their peers. Something has changed, and it isn’t the proliferation of weapons.

But what about something else other than moral decay? Many of the shooters share something else:

“They’ve been drugged in many cases. Nearly all of these perpetrators are male. … Many of these young boys have been on Ritalin since they were in kindergarten.”

Ritalin, quite simply, is speed. Pure speed. The very thing people would tell their children to never do, in some cases, they’re forcing them to do. From a very early age. There have yet to be enough studies over enough time to scientifically determine what speed — not to mention SSRI’s, a constant among mass shooters — does to the brains of human beings raised on it.

It isn’t a preposterous notion that giving children chemicals that affect their brain or function might, over time, result in behavioral changes. That, after all, is the entire purpose of the drugs.

Meanwhile, here’s a retro Trump tweet for us all:

Video game violence & glorification must be stopped—it is creating monsters!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 17, 2012

Stand by for the Left’s response to Oliver North’s comments, which will no doubt be a sight far from complimentary.

As a bonus, here’s psychiatrist Peter Breggin on the drugs which have infiltrated the bodies and minds of young Americans. If you have further interest in the subject, enjoy more of his thoughts courtesy of the worldwide web:

For more on the topic of guns and schools, check out my article on how the media covered a pro-gun school walkout.

And as always, follow Alex Parker on Twitter.